Stumbled on this just after finishing up my getting ready for the day, and it was a nice way to start it, no doubt about it.

That said, I'd been wondering for some while how you were going to be handling the retelling of the twins' story, and I wasn't disappointed how it was done. I'll admit I probably would have liked to see a bit more to the mention of how the two got out of there, but that's a small thing. And I remember Shara's reaction in the show. It was puzzling to me how that got into Slade's retelling at the time, as he couldn't have known about what happened. So kudos to you for how you covered that particular detail.

You captured it all well, and I was impressed. On a final note, thank you for leaving out the part at the end with Slade yelling. I kind of thought that it was a somewhat melodramatic way to end the episode, even if I could understand the reasons it was handled that way, her being the only family he had left, really, and he was about to lose her.

There is something else I've been wondering. Are you going to be covering the 2nd season as well? They didn't show the English dub for it in my area, and I'd long wanted to know how the whole thing ended, as I was disappointed by the open ending the show left at the end of the first. Took me years to find out that there actually was a 2nd that was never shown.

Nicely done. :)

Spear grows crazier with every chapter, I swear, and soon he'll be joined by three more.

You know, I always did want to know how the Commander even thought to look for Dr. Carter's name. It was never explained.

Eeep, I think you're getting Slade and Saber's English names mixed up? Ness Slade, and Cain Saber...unless I'm totally going nuts, I think you have this reversed, especially since you keep reiterating that "Cain" is linked to "that woman (who I'm guessing must be Star)."

Think I'm going to have to poke you for a quick family reference on the Carter family, since I've lost track of who's who for the new people at this point / Ness, Cain, Conrad, and Shara were the original family, you added in Sam...and at the moment I'm still confused who Spear is, since if that's a "Conrad," I'm not clear on who Darkon is now, since Conrad/Kengo was Darkon/Omega in the original series.

Guess you're throwing Mags and Saber together in this fic; Maggie is an exuberant character, mostly cheerful, with underlying smarts and wit, so not a bad match for Cain. Still a bit odd to me, since I haven't read lots of Tekkaman fics, and none of them really paired Cain with anyone, but I'll get accustomed to it shortly.

Thanks for writing; gonna PM poke you too :)

Thank god, Star got some man back into Slade. Admittedly, his emo run was starting to get to me; as I've commented before, he seems even weaker mentally than he had been from what I recall from the series, so to see him depend so heavily on Saber and other peeps before he pulled himself together was a little disturbing. Hopefully all he has from now on are more "off days" as Star put it, rather than this slow falling-apart-thing.

Again, I can't imagine how Slade would hold up if Darkon / evilized Carter family takes Saber away. Straight into the deep end I'd surmise. Or perhaps just burning determination to get his little brother back. I'll sit back and see what you do here.

Rats, General Fatty is still around. Fix, please :P And thanks for writing.

Hmm...it seems like Saber's becoming more and more of a crutch for Slade-I'm rather hoping the latter toughens up a bit. I know he had his breakdowns here and there in the actual series, but Slade appears a bit wimpier than I remember him being. Saber's gotta slap some man into him methinks.

Here's hoping the Spider crabs get a hold of Gault!

I feel rather retarded, I forget exactly which brother Spear is supposed to be...was it one that you created and threw into the fray? The only ones of the Carter/Aiba family I can remember are Conrad (Darkon), Ness (Blade), Cain (Saber), and Shara (Rapier). Aiyah...perhaps if you can throw up a character refresher / summary again, that'd be grand.

Thanks, as always, for writing!

I hope Balzac gets to have a change of heart soon; once he goes around the bend and becomes a decent guy, it's much better. He's such an ass now...although I guess he gets a little slack since he just lost his best friend. Even still, he's being a total jerk.

And it seems that Saber is still the stronger of the two twins; that's good as it would be bad if both twins were starting to lose it, although I do find that interesting again as Slade canonically was "the naturally stronger dude." It seems the only way he's weaker is that he can't stay transformed as long; although, again, it seems he has the benefit of just passing out when his limit is up, rather than mentally losing it like Slade.

I'm still hoping it's getting close to the time you nuke Gault though :P That man has no redeeming features whatsoever. Nuke nuke nuke!

Thanks again for writing.

Whoa, pouncing Maggie. That's a rather odd image O_o Especially considering that Maggie was actually a guy in the Japanese version. Haha. Not like it matters much to me, but it's just a strange image to contemplate, on top of how Saber's original character was.

It seems Slade's a bit more fragile than I remember him to be, or perhaps that's because in the normal series he had no one else to rely on for support...at least not the way he can here with Saber's presence. If Saber gets taken away from Slade here, I'd imagine Slade would go off the deep end worse than he ever really has in the original series, since in there the two brothers didn't get to be together harmoniously at any time.

Again, thanks for writing!

It's been so long since I've read and reviewed some of the earlier chapters, I can't recall if I'm about to blather stuff I've said before, but anyhoo...

One of the things I love about this story is having Saber get to play as a foil to his older twin brother: he has the attitude he had as a full human without the whole inferiority complex thing going on, which is nice. I'm sure Slade is happy having someone who can fully appreciate the ordeals he goes through, not to mention having his own twin around for the ride. It's cute to watch Saber run around taking care of Slade even though he's the younger of the two. In a way, it's a reversal again from how it was in the original series, where it was kind of understood that Slade-being the elder and seen as the more capable one-would be the one to take care of his younger twin.

Balzac's still a bit of an ass thus far, but that comes from having to work under Gault; I'll be waiting for him to be able to come out from under baldie's shadow and be the decent guy I know he can be.

Once I get up to speed on this story, I'll be checking out your uncut version for this; again, thanks for writing and also for letting me know about the other version :)

Can't wait for an update. :)

I had wondered how you were going to handle how Conrad/Spear showed up at the Space Knights base. Nicely handled. And good job with explaining Shara's thoughts when she helped those nomads. I'd always wondered what was going through her head at that point.

I love this fanfic its how i wished that could have happened please update soon i can't wait for more!

Got your PM. No, I don't have it on alerts, but it is on my list of faves. Thank you for the heads-up, though. I hadn't yet checked my profile today.

That said, I did appreciate your touching on Balzac a little there at the start. As much as I didn't care for his character, I have liked how you added him in a bit more to this story. For this chapter, I noticed how you gave an explanation for how he returned to Earth, which I thank you for. In the show, it was just like the battle ended and boom, he disappeared. Perhaps the 2nd season would have explained it had it been shown (and I know he was going to appear and what would happen to him in it. Read about it), but even so, giving a hint of his fate before the end of the first would have been nice. No matter what you thought of the character, his fate was definitely a loose end and he deserved a bit of closure there.

Again, I liked how you include the scenes of the humans as they gradually transform and show their thought processes as it's happening. It helps give a bit more understanding how the Radam do it, and it really is a chilling process. I'm looking forward to seeing how you're going to be telling the origin story a few chapters from now.

As for thought processes, I really find Conrad's disturbing when it comes to his siblings. He is so far gone that he doesn't even understand how to be human anymore. 2 of his brothers and his sister still at least have that. Shara fought for that, I would imagine, and I suspect that was more than likely why she was rejected. But Conrad no longer has any connection to his homeworld or people. He claims to love the three of them but doesn't realize that they are sickened by what he has become and would never return willingly. In some ways, he seems even more twisted than the original Saber. If he were still even somewhat human and displayed those tendencies, I'd call him a sociopath, honestly. However, I will take your description of "brainwashed and psychotic".

Your motives for putting him in a church were pretty good too. I know from the original series it was the last place that Slade would have expected to find Saber, but there was no real explanation for why he chose it. You really do graft the show well with your own retelling.

What really amuses me is the friendship between Ringo and Saber. Oh, that brings up so many possiblities of what might have been in the show. Star's actions towards Spear in the church, though...Saber wouldn't have let her live if she'd done it to him had he been the one Slade was facing down, I'm sure of it. She caught him by surprise, no doubt about it.

Definitely, Maggie and Saber deserve each other. Again, another intriguing what might have been. I always thought those two would have been perfect for each other in another life.

On a final note: "He had clearly been warped by whatever it was that the Radam did to make their Teknomen loyal to them, and for a moment, Star found herself wondering just how Slade and Saber had managed to escape that same, sad fate themselves."

Star should be careful about thoughts like those. Sometimes the answers aren't very pleasant.

Things are once again beginning to move quickly. See you next time.

Perfect chapter. :)

Love it, nicely done, and merry Christmas.